Family members who own Purdue Pharma have agreed to pay $11.7 billion after a settlement over the toll of the powerful prescription opioid painkiller, OxyContin. (AP: Douglas Healey)
In short:
The owners of Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, have agreed to pay US7.4 billion ($11.7 billion) to settle lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller.
The Sackler family also agreed to relinquish ownership of the company in one of the largest settlements in a series of lawsuits aimed at holding companies responsible for the United States' opioid epidemic.Â
What's next?
While the deal was negotiated by 15 states, some jurisdictions yet to approve the settlement, which could lead to more state-based lawsuits against Sackler family members.
Members of the family who Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the opioid drug OxyContin, have agreed to pay US7.4 billion ($11.7 billion) to settle lawsuits over the toll of the powerful prescription painkiller, according to attorneys-general from several US states.
The deal, agreed to by Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family members who own the company and lawyers representing state and local governments and thousands of victims of the opioid crisis, replaces a previous settlement that was rejected last year by the US Supreme Court.
The deal was negotiated by 15 states, including New York, California, Connecticut, Oregon, Texas, Florida and West Virginia.
The Sacklers agreed on Thursday local time to pay up to $US6.5 billion ($10.2 billion) and relinquish ownership of the company, which would pay nearly $US900 million ($1.4 billion).Â
The maximum contribution from family members is $US500 million ($791 million) more than the previous deal.
The United States has been in the grips of an opioid crisis, which some assert began after OxyContin hit the market in 1996, and more than 500,000 overdose deaths have been recorded since. (Reuters: George Frey)
The agreement is among the largest settlements reached over the past several years in a series of lawsuits by local, state, Native American tribal governments and others seeking to hold companies responsible for a deadly epidemic.Â
Aside from the Purdue deal, others worth around $US50 billion ($79.1 billion) have been announced — and most of the money is required to be used to stem the crisis.
The deal still needs court approval, and some of the details are yet to be ironed out.Â
An arm of the federal Department of Justice opposed the previous settlement, even after every state agreed, and took the battle to the US Supreme Court.Â
Under newly-elected US President Donald Trump, the federal government is not expected to oppose the new deal.
"We are extremely pleased that a new agreement has been reached that will deliver billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver treatment and overdose rescue medicines that will save lives," Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue said in a statement.
Representatives for Sackler family members did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Settlement funds to go to opioid crisis victims
Kara Trainor, a Michigan woman who has been in recovery for 17 years, said she became addicted to opioids after receiving a prescription for OxyContin to deal with a back injury 23 years ago. She praised the deal.
"Everything in my life is shaped by a company that put profits over human lives," Ms Trainor said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of 15 attorneys-general involved in negotiating the deal, heralded it as a "massive influx of funds" that will go towards healing communities.
In West Virginia, the epicentre of the opioid crisis, Attorney General JB McCuskey agreed to the deal but had harsh words for the company and its owners.Â
"While West Virginians' lives were being destroyed by opioid addiction, the Sacklers were cashing in every time someone got hooked — getting rich with no regard to the toll their drugs were taking on people, families and our communities," he said in a statement.
Not every state has signed on yet. A spokesperson for Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said the office is still reviewing the deal and weighing its options.
New York Attorney-General Letitia James said at a press conference that the 'massive influx' of settlement funds would go towards helping the victims and survivors of the opioid crisis to heal. (AP: Seth Wenig)
Under the new proposal, like the previous one, members of the Sackler family would also give up ownership of Purdue.Â
They have already stepped down from the company's board and have not taken distributions from Purdue since before the bankruptcy filing.Â
The company would become a new entity under the settlement deal, with its board appointed by states and others who sued the company.
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In an aspect not featured in most opioid settlements between $US800 million and $US850 million ($1.26 – $1.34 billion) is also to go to victims of the opioid crisis or their survivors, according to Ed Neiger, a lawyer for individual victims.
The deal also includes as much as $US800 million set aside to pay for future settlements if new lawsuits arise against the Sacklers, according to the New York attorney-general's office.
The Supreme Court blocked the earlier agreement last year because it protected members of the wealthy family from civil lawsuits over OxyContin — even though the family members themselves were not in bankruptcy.Â
The new agreement protects family members from lawsuits only from entities that agree to the settlement.
If a new deal is not approved, it could open the floodgates to lawsuits against Sackler family members.
A US bankruptcy judge is expected to decide on Friday time whether to keep temporary protections for them in place through February.
'We are holding them accountable'
The new settlement could bring to a close a chapter in a long legal saga over the toll of an opioid crisis that some experts assert began after OxyContin hit the market in 1996.Â
Since then, the opioid addiction epidemic has caused more than 500,000 overdose deaths in the United States over two decades. The deadliest stretch has been since 2020, when illicit fentanyl has been found as a factor in more than 70,000 deaths annually.
Members of the Sackler family have been cast as villains and have seen their name removed from art galleries and universities around the world because of their role in the privately-held company.Â
They have continued to deny claims of any wrongdoing.
Collectively, family members have been estimated to be worth billions more than they'd contribute in the settlement, but much of the wealth is in offshore accounts and might be impossible to access through lawsuits.
Connecticut Democratic Attorney General William Tong said the settlement would not bring the family financial ruin.
"This is about families impacted by this crisis," he said.
"This is about a group of people and a family that are among the most notorious wrongdoers … and we are holding them accountable."
Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as it faced thousands of lawsuits over the opioid crisis.Â
Among the claims are that the company targeted doctors with a message that the addiction risk to the powerful painkillers was low.
In an October 2024 filing, one branch of the family pledged to defend itself in any cases that are allowed to move ahead, saying that the legal theory at the heart of the lawsuits — that Purdue and Sackler family members created a "public nuisance" — "is utterly devoid of merits."
AP/Reuters